or 20 years from now but today. the speaker likes to quote his hero ronald reagan who i knew when i was a senator. he didn't quote everything reagan said. he said debt ceiling threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on social security, benefits in the united states. especial responsibility to meet this obligation. he goes on to say it means we have a well-earned reputation of reliability and credibility which set us apart from the rest of the world. that's what ronald reagan said. donald trump seeking to increase the debt limit while he's doing what he's doing. he said i can't imagine anybody ever even thinking about using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge. i guess he did not know the new republicans he bread. america is not a deadbeat

nation. we meet our obligations and i made it clear to the speaker about how we should proceed. no one should do anything to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states. instead of making threats of default if i don't go along with what i will -- what they want which would be catastrophic for the country. take default off the table. let's have a real serious detailed conversation about how to grow the economy, lower costs and reduce the deficit. host: president biden yesterday responding to the republican proposal to make spending cuts calling them wacko notions. here's where republicans would like to see in any sort of debt raising deal. raise the debt ceiling into 2024 by 1.5 trillion or whichever one comes first. reduce spending through the fiscal year 2022 ash to the

fiscal 2022 levels. that could amount in 132 billion dollars in spending cuts. and limit future spending growth to 1% annually. it would recover $90.5 billion in unspent covid-19 funds. work requirements for federal aid recipients occluding raising the limit for work requirements from 49 to 55 and clawback irs funds for the new 80,000 agents, a block student debt cancellation and perform energy committing and revoke clean energy tax credits. that the legislation the house recently passed. mike in ohio. let's go to you. and independent, what do you think? should cuts be part of the negotiations? caller: of course. come on. we the people have been in trouble for a long time and they are expecting us to cut back. we have inflation running out of control. let me tell you how we can take care of this problem.

we cut that building right behind you 10% across-the-board. we've got agencies that are doing two to three things at different agencies. things are out of control. our industrial complex that keeps wanting more and more money, they give us a price on a certain item and the next thing you know it's over cost run and we are just shoveling money. immigration. close the border. close the border. we are spending hundreds of millions on immigration. close the border. host: mike said spending cuts should be included in ending proposal to raise the debt ceiling. joe in georgia, a republican. what do you think? caller: love your network. we've got a cut spending. it must be cut.

we are having big things happening. this saturday, the georgia gang every sunday. he's good to be talking. host: let's stick to the topic. sharon in maryland, a democratic caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was thinking this spending cuts we already have inflation that so high for the american people and its things are just not right right now. it is out of whack. you know these republicans, they are just in chaos. there can bring this country down. it's not right what they are doing to the american people. i know they spending a lot of money but i don't want to see our country default it on our debt. it's can have an effect on everyone. and what about the lower-class

or middle-class people but are not making that much money. i just don't understand this country how it's working. one thing i know, i have to pray and my prayer is the only thing that keeps me afloat. i thank god for that. host: saying no to spending cuts. she does not want to see the possibility of a financial crisis if we fault on our obligations. the speaker says he will bring this bill to the floor next weekend according to recording -- reporting he feels confident he has the votes, all republicans -- the republicans he needs to pass this legislation. eric in massachusetts, independent. caller: good morning. i do believe spending cuts have been long overdue. we are way over budget obviously

. i am a government employee myself, i work in the department of defense. i went to -- went through what they call the sequester. they had no problem cutting my pay literally right off the knees by 20%. it wasn't a long time, but they cut it right off. and no one really had an issue with it. if we cut welfare for instance 1/10 of 1%, the democrats would've been out of their minds. they would have been apoplectic about cutting that small amount. but they cut me off 20% for that small timeframe luckily. however, i will also say this. we are dumping millions of people into our country and i guess that we need labor force to come in and do certain jobs

but i don't feel these people are all gainfully employed. i do feel it's going to be a drain on our system and that has to be addressed somehow. host: john in new york, republican. what do you say on this debate? caller: i would say yes. the problem is spending cuts are always a matter of political necessity, but also practical applications. we don't have any specific proposals from speaker mccarthy about the spending cuts he's talked about and i think we have to harken back to the words of the great greek philosopher aristotle who stated the happiest way of maintaining human life is define a balance. i fail to see on both sides,

particularly the republican side of any hint of really come to a mean or an average thing. host: hang with us because i'm going to get to that possibly some middle ground. but first you said you did not hear any specifics. let's listen to the speaker on the floor yesterday talking about spending cuts and cost savings as part of the proposal. [video clip] >> the pandemic is over. house republicans have already passed a bill to officially end the pandemic. president biden signed into law just last week. our bill would actually clawback billions of dollars of unspent covid money that has sat for the last two years. the are tired of politicians who use covid as an excuse for more

extreme inflationary spending. now if this money was authorized to fight the pandemic but was not spent during the pandemic, it should not be spent after the pandemic is over. our proposals also reveal biden's army of 87,000 -- repeals bidens army of 80 7000 irs agents. that will save taxpayers $70 billion and it will protect the families, the small businesses from weaponizing the irs. it will end the green giveaways for companies that distort the market and waste taxpayers money. goldman sachs just did an analogy is that analysis and they say the savings from ending these green giveaways are as much as $1.2 trillion. we would prohibit president biden's student loan giveaway.

that will protect the 87% of adults without student loans for paying the loans of the 13% who do. host: the speaker yesterday giving some details about republicans push for including spending cuts in any proposal you heard him give some numbers there. here's the washington times report this in the bill cuts federal spending by $130 billion for the upcoming fiscal year and limits future budget growth to 1%. it rescinds president biden student loan forgiveness program and 90.5 billion dollars in unspent covid relief. it would also repeal major portions of mr. bidens $739 billion climate change law including $70 billion in irs funding and $369 billion in green energy tax credits.

let's hear from president biden as we said. the two key players in this negotiations were giving dueling speeches yesterday. one right after the other end here is president biden talking about the proposed spending cuts and saying these are critical programs that americans rely on. [video clip] >> telling the billion dollar companies to stop stashing profits off the coast and shipping jobs overseas. i didn't hear any of that, did you? instead he proposed a huge cut two very important programs. that many hard-working middle-class americans count on. all the while officials are pushing for more tax giveaways and overwhelming benefits for the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations. it's time -- this time it is worse than ever. let's be clear.

the plan has details, mccarthy comes along and delivers a speech with not a plan. in some sense it's pretty simple. for example he talked about limiting spending. look at what he did not say. he didn't tell you how much he wants to cut, of the house leading republican proposal would cut critical programs and so-called discretionary spending by 22%. that would mean cutting the number of people who administer social security and medicare meaning longer wait times. higher cost for child care, higher cost for housing especially for older americans and those with disabilities, veterans. leaving our brave warriors to get checkups and mental health services and treatment and

substance disorders out in the cold. tens of thousands of people suffering from opioid epidemic would be denied treatment and even recovery. that cut undermines rail safety, border security, clean air. look it up. talk about defunding. they don't like the fbi. it's outrageous. think about it. defund the fbi. republicans in congress have introduced a bill that could take food assistance away from as many as 10 million kids, 4 million children. and put them at risk of going hungry. the wealthiest country in the world. the congress ports cuts in medicaid the could lead milk -- lead millions to cutting their

health care. do these painful cuts actually help the deficit, do they reduce cost? the answer is no. host: back to your calls. john in maryland, democratic caller. are you for including spending cuts or no. caller: i was listening to the president and everything he said right there. this might be the richest country in the world but we have some of the most political economic people i've ever seen and heard because what's amazing to me if people would stop listening to fox news and pay attention to something else it's a possibility they might be educated. when he said the magic thing, that trickle down theory that's robbing the people at the bottom and those tax cuts trump gave four years he was in there.

the military spending that's being done, the tax havens that are there. it's amazing how the american people just do not listen but listen to one person, one entity but don't go searching for the truth in other areas. host: it sounds like from what you said that you would be willing to see some spending cuts for the pentagon's budget. caller: we are still paying for the vietnam war. we are still paying for the iraq war. we are still paying for the invasion of afghanistan. we american people all the stuff that's going to ukraine, that's our tax dollars. 's -- host: as a democrat though you're sounding like republican on the ukraine spending. caller: no. what i'm telling the american people whose money is paying for that so they will know why the money we think it is so high. the republicans are allowing the

business to gouge the american people tapping with the economy. this started years ago. gouging the american people. host: wondering if there's some middle ground there. the problem solvers caucuses come up with a plan. the bipartisan problem solvers caucus released its own debt limit framework and say this is a backup if speaker mccarthy and president biden cannot, together with a deal. the problem solvers proposal endorsed by a super majority of the group 64 members calls for suspending the debt limit for the end of this year to allow lawmakers time to complete the fiscal 24 budget and appropriations process. the proposal called for creating an external fiscal commission. commission lawmakers set up to

evaluate military -- the fiscal commission would recommend measures to stabilize long-term debt by the end of 2020 congress provided it expedited authority to act on the recommendation by february 28, 2025. the problem solvers did not specify what controls they are seeking but the amount should be enough to increase the debt limit through february 25 to align with implementation of the fiscal commission recommendation. there is a backup plan. wondering your thoughts on that as well. alex in maryland, and independent. caller: good morning. there's a couple of things that are really great. i would say i've only been really paying attention to this is probably the latter end of the bush era and it seems this discussion happens over and

over. we have to do something about spending and we have to cut somewhere, we just don't. you played a clip a bit ago about president biden talking about how we've been growing the deficits for 200 years. right or wrong that should stagger everybody. if we cannot get ourselves under control with what we've been building -- building debt for centuries. that should be indicative of a problem to say the least. i would also suggest in addition to spending limits or cuts from budget proposals, the manner in which the government spends money there's an issue. i'm sure you are aware of this, with the elements of the government are incentivized to spend all of the money they get because they will get their budgets cut the following year if they do not.

the government will rightly assume you didn't need the money so we can spend the somewhere else. it's a common practice throughout the government particularly i would say in the department of defense in my experience, that something we do all of the time. so folks saying we need to cut the dod, that's a possibility. if we are honest with ourselves that this requires people that are dealing with our money in the department of defense be good stewards of taxpayer money. if you do not need it, you need to be willing to give it up. what i'm trying to say is there's a lot of different ways that this can be done to impact the deficit and the amount the government spends it is not just as much negotiations but it's in the way we practice our fiscal responsibilities with taxpayer money. host: you mentioned the history of the debt ceiling fight. alan writes today in the wall street journal,